ALICE COOPER – Constrictor [Japan HR/HM 1000 Vol.2 series] (2020) *0dayrox Exclusive*

Today, September 22, is the 35th-year anniversary of the release of ALICE COOPER‘s “comeback” album ”Constrictor”, and the legendary shock-rock icon continues to tour and release albums at an impressive pace. Can you think of another artist or band that has made such a successful comeback after being down and out for a number of years?
To celebrate this rockin’ 1986’s album anniversary we’re featuring in exclusive the recent (December 2020) Japanese CD reissue of ”Constrictor” as part of the HR/HM 1000 Vol.2 series.
Writing the songs with guitarist Kane Roberts, Alice came up with very catchy and memorable ’80s style music that fit right alongside everything that was being released at that time: polished, commercial melodic hard rock produced by the men of the moment: Michael Wagener & Beau Hill.

Like many rock acts that came up in the ’70s, Alice Cooper found himself on unsure footing as a new decade dawned and brought along a significant drop in popularity. Additionally, Cooper experimented a bit in the first half of the Eighties with albums ‘Dada’ and Zipper Catches Skin with dispar results in sales.
But when MTV began to rise and heavy metal found its place on the network, the legendary shock rocker realized the time was right to make a return.

Seeing the likes of Twisted Sister and Motley Crue find success with theatrics combined with hard rock, Cooper began plotting his musical rebirth. The main factor was the addition of Kane Roberts, who not only served as Cooper’s new guitarist and co-writer but also as a stabilizing presence whose focus was on the music rather than the party.
“Kane was a great influence,” recalled manager Shep Gordon in Super Duper Alice Cooper. “Didn’t drink, didn’t do drugs, really healthy, great sense of humor – just a solid guy.”

In addition to the very physically imposing Roberts, Alice Cooper‘s bandmates for ”Constrictor” consisted of drummer David Rosenberg and bassist Kip Winger — the latter whom went on to achieve fame and fortune on his own with the band bearing his name.
And Wagener provided the polished sheen and bombast melodic hard rock needed in 1986.
Constrictor’s first single, “He’s Back (The Man Behind the Mask),” was released in August 1986 as the theme song to Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives. It resulted very successful in the chart, even become a #1 hit in Sweden.

Cooper didn’t think the track was representative of the rest of the album, but it became so popular that he tacked the song on at the end of the LP, almost as an afterthought. The movie franchise’s return to form helped build buzz for Cooper – three of his songs can be heard in the film: “Teenage Frankenstein,” Constrictor’s second single, and “Hard Rock Summer,” which wouldn’t see official release until the 1999 box set The Life and Crimes of Alice Cooper, joined “He’s Back” onscreen.

There was no soundtrack to Friday the 13th Part VI, which helped fuel sales of ”Constrictor”. The rest of the album was hardly filler. Assisted by Beau Hill, who had made a name for himself as the producer of Ratt’s first two records and the latest Kix LP, the album featured a slick, ’80s pop-metal polish and fit in with the rest of the hard-rock landscape of the time. (Hill also brought in bassist Kip Winger, who would go on to form his own hitmaking band a few years later.)
While Cooper put aside the jump-scare theatrics on Constrictor, some songs recall that classic era and serve as the album’s highlights: “The Great American Success Story,” “The World Needs Guts” and “Simple Disobedience.”

On Halloween night 1986, a concert from the Nightmare Returns Tour was broadcast live on MTV from Cooper’s hometown of Detroit. The second of two sold-out shows at the Joe Louis Arena, the broadcast pushed Constrictor to No. 59 on the Billboard chart, his highest showing in six years.
More importantly, it reestablished Cooper as a new force in metal, an old-school originator and elder statesman to a new generation of rockers.
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01 – Teenage Frankenstein
02 – Give It Up
03 – Thrill My Gorilla
04 – Life And Death Of The Party
05 – Simple Disobedience
06 – The World Needs Guts
07 – Trick Bag
08 – Crawlin’
09 – The Great American Success Story
10 – He’s Back (The Man Behind The Mask)

Alice Cooper – vocals
Kane Roberts – guitar, keyboards, background vocals
Paul Delph – keyboards, background vocals
Tom Kelly, Beau Hill – background vocals
David Rosenberg – drums
Donnie Kisselbach – bass
Kip Winger – bass

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www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/UICY-79377